Vandalism with a Purpose

Calling this "vandalism" kind of misses the point. The artist in question called it guerrilla public service.

The situation was this: for years, in Los Angeles the freeway signs were, eh, unhelpful. The spur I-110 passes right through the west part of downtown LA's center. The connector to I-5 was a left exit, but the only sign saying so was nearly a mile before, and small, and on the right side of the road.

Angelino, sign maker, and artist Richard Ankrom got fed up. He decided to take matters into his own hands. If you click on the link above you'll be taken to his documentary, "Guerrilla Public Service." He documented himself making a very high quality freeway sign, actually exactly the same as the California Department of Transportation, down to the paint and reflectors. He even purchased an outfit to look like a public worker, and installed the sign in the middle of the day.

The whole endeavor is proof of "look like you belong and no one will bother you." The movie shows all of this, and he didn't release it until the statute of limitations was up on his "public sign 'defacing.'" 

This "vandalism" was left unchanged (it was pretty helpful) for 8 years. 8. Years. Hell yes.

Eventually the DoT came and took the rogue sign down, and replaced it with one of their own. I realized that when I was staying in the hotel in DTLA back in August, I could see the replaced sign:

And there it is: the I-5 marker showing the left lane exit next the 110 marker. (That's the point where the road splits: north of that point and it's CA HWY 110; south and it's spur I-110.)

Of course, I took the picture before I realized I had the sign in frame...here's the original pic:

This is from the elevator landing on the 20th floor. I was familiar with the documentary and realized later that I may have captured the new sign.

Anywho, the documentary is weird and, eh, Lynchian, I guess you could say. As in David Lynch...if a documentary about making and secretly---in the bright sunlight of day---installing a freeway sign can be like a David Lynch project.

I read an essay about it recently, and a point they were making was: wasn't there anything better to do? Like, making a legit traffic sign, and installing it? Nothing better to do? And the answer was...no. This was in August of 2001. It was a month before the 9/11 attacks, with the US at the height of it's global position, invincible and where messing around with trifling things was a totally passable thing to be involved with.

Seems like a distant memory now.